1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer based systems and methods for automatically providing electronic versions of standard, paper-based government agency forms for electronic form completion and filing. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing customers with a single access point for locating electronic government agency forms and submitting them for filing with any one of a plurality of government agencies for processing.
2. General Background and State of the Art
Compliance with various requirements involving filings of forms is a predestined activity for individuals around the world, whether related to government regulations, business requirements, or the like. In many cases, such requirements are fulfilled by the completion and filing of official government forms with various government agencies. Today, people and businesses fulfill such requirements through methods of interaction and communication with the government agencies that are often inefficient. These methods of communication typically involve time consuming processes that also involve significant monetary expenditures.
FIG. 1 illustrates one such prior art method of interaction with government agencies for the purpose of filing government forms. This commonly practiced paper-based method involves physically submitting forms by mail or in person to a government agency, a time consuming process that also involves significant monetary expenditures. First a customer must obtain a paper form from a government agency, as indicated at block 100. In an exemplary embodiment related to government forms, the customer may be a citizen or constituent. In other exemplary embodiments of the invention, the customer may be a different, relevant party to the transaction which the forms is designed to support. Often the form must be obtained either personally, such as by visiting the government agency or an associated form repository, or through the mail. Next, as indicated at block 102, the customer fills out the paper form, providing information in each of a plurality of blank spaces reserved for this purpose. Next, at block 104, the customer mails the form to the government agency, or personally delivers the form to the government agency. Then, at block 106, a data entry clerk at the government agency receives the completed form, re-enters the customer-provided information thereon into a computer-based system for receiving form data, and transmits the data to an existing government agency system 114. The existing government agency system 114 validates the data and proof reads the data to verify its accuracy with the customer-provided form data. During this validation process, the system considers whether the customer-provided data on the form is invalid or insufficient, or otherwise defective, as indicated at decision block 108. If further information is required from the customer to address an invalidity or insufficiency, as indicated at arrow 110, the customer may have to obtain another form and re-start the form completion and submission process. When the answer reached at decision block 108 is that the data is not invalid or insufficient, as indicated at arrow 112, the data entered by the data entry clerk and representative of the form data supplied by the customer is accepted by the existing government agency system for processing, as indicated at block 114.
A number of inefficiencies and drawbacks are often associated with the above-outlined procedures. First, as described above, customers may be required to repeat the time consuming process of obtaining, filling out, and submitting government forms if they make a mistake during their first attempt. Second, because existing government agency systems do not follow identical or consistent data processing standards, form data entered by data entry clerks must be entered according to the specific type of government agency system it is being transmitted to for processing. Inconsistencies between various government agency systems hinder the potential for a uniform method and style of data entry by data entry clerks. Data entry clerks therefore must utilize discretion in determining to which type of government agency system the undefined data from a received form will be transmitted, and then enter the data in a manner appropriate to that type. The decision making process is often inefficient, and the expanded skill set required of data entry clerks who must be familiar with a variety of different data types and government agency system types is also inefficient.
Attempts have been made to address some of the problems discussed above with respect to inefficiencies of paper-based form filing with government agencies. One method that attempts to address these problems is illustrated in FIG. 2, which is illustrates a second prior art method of interaction with government agencies for the purpose of filing government forms. The second method utilizes a computerized, web-based approach to minimize some of the inefficiencies of the older, paper-based methods. Although the web-based approach reduces involvement of paper forms in the interaction process, a number of inefficiencies are often inherent to and persist in such methods.
The prior art method of FIG. 2 requires a customer to obtain a form at block 200, such as from a government agency web site. The customer then prints the electronic version of the form, at block 202, and thus obtains a paper based version of the form. At block 204 the customer fills out the paper form, and at block 206 he mails the completed form to the desired government agency. As in the first prior art method described above, at block 208 a data entry clerk at the government agency then must re-enter the form data into a computer and submit the data to the existing government agency system 216. The existing government agency system 216 validates and proof reads the entered form data to ensure accuracy with the customer provided data on the paper form. After the data is re-entered, the system 216 must determine whether it is invalid or insufficient, as indicated at decision block 210. If, as indicated by arrow 212, it is determined that further information is required from the customer to correct an invalidity or insufficiency, the customer must begin the form retrieval, completion and submission process again. The process is repeated until the answer reached at decision block 210 is that the data is not invalid or insufficient, as indicated at arrow 214. At that time, the re-entered data is accepted by the existing government agency system, at block 216.
As in the first prior art method described above, the second prior art method of FIG. 2 includes many of the same inherent inefficiencies. Although customers no longer are required to personally obtain a copy of the form, the process for transmitting the completed form to a government agency remains slow, and the process of data validation remains inefficient. Also, the second prior art method does not overcome the previously described problems associated with non-uniformity of existing government agency systems
Other prior art systems include web-based forms that may be submitted electronically. However, even these systems have undesirable inefficiencies associated with them. For example, without an efficient method of converting standard paper-based forms to on-line electronic forms, new systems cannot be rapidly developed, and new on-line versions of paper forms cannot be rapidly generated and added to existing systems. Costs associated with the time and labor of coding individual data fields to correspond to spaces on the paper forms for entering information contribute to the inefficiencies present in these types of prior art systems. Other contributors to the inefficiencies are attributed to ineffective means associating electronic forms to government agencies. For example, these prior art systems typically require customers to access forms directly from a web site of the applicable government agency. Therefore, in order to file multiple forms, the customer must visit multiple government agency web sites. Also, if a customer does not know which government agency a particular form is to be filed with, he will not know which web site to access in order to complete and submit the form.
There continues to be a need and a new market opportunity for a more efficient conduit for transactions between individuals and government. However, developing such a conduit for handling forms for a variety of government agencies who have different requirements and utilize different types of processing systems remains a challenge, particularly in the aspects of time and resource efficiency.